Theresa May quoted Winston Churchill today to explain why she would never break up the UK

She insisted it was time for bureaucrats to restart "constructive" conversations told them to throw out their "unworkable" positions as she fought to save her Brexit deal.

And stressing the vital part Northern Ireland plays in the UK, Mrs May said: "at the end of the Second World War, Churchill famously said that without Northern Ireland 'the light which now shines so strongly throughout the world would have been quenched’."

Playing hardball with the Eurocrats she warned: "It is now time for the EU to respond.

"Not simply to fall back on to previous positions which have already been proven unworkable. But to evolve their position in kind."

On her two-day trip to Northern Ireland she has met with business leaders and politicians on both sides of the border

"We want the European Commission to sit down with us with increased pace in the negotiations, and recognise that if we are going to deliver on the commitments all sides have made, we need a practical solution that protects jobs and makes sure we don't have a hard border."

And in a warning to her Brexiteer MPs who have played down the importance of Northern Ireland in recent months, she added: "We can’t solve it on our own, but nor can we wash our hands of any responsibility for it."

The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier is set to make a formal response to her plans this afternoon.

Today she insisted that all sides must work together to deliver a solution that protects jobs

Mrs May used the speech to insist again that the EU's backstop proposal on Northern Ireland which would keep them in the EU's Single Market and Customs Union was unacceptable to her, and would go against the Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to the area in 1997.

The PM said that it wouldn't be needed if they come to another arrangement.

But she insisted that her controversial Chequers deal - which is still infuriating Tory MPs - is the best way to deliver for Northern Ireland, and will deliver a "principled and pragmatic" Brexit.

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The agreement she secured with her Cabinet two weeks ago has caused chaos, with the resignation of her Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnsn.

But despite the departure of two of her biggest Brexiteers, she is sticking to her plans, which would keep Britain tied to EU rules in a "free trade area" for goods - and a "common rulebook".

Her plan, she said, would allow us to take back control of border, laws and money, and would promote jobs and prosperity.

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